After the Sole Survivor gets into The Institute, The Railroad wants them to make contact with an anonymous person inside, nicknamed Patriot, that's been helping synths escape. Tinker Tom provides the encrypted message holotape that will upload a message for Patriot to the Institute's network in the hopes that Patriot sees it and comes forward to identify themselves.

After uploading the message, Patriot sends a message back telling the Sole Survivor to meet him in a maintenance closet. Patriot turns out to be Liam Binet, an institute scientist and son of Alan Binet, the head of the Robotics department. Liam expresses surprise that anyone decoded the messages he was sending out with each synth he freed and were then able to contact him back, and he is excited at the prospect of coordinating with The Railroad.

He introduces the Sole Survivor to a synth named Z1-14 who has been working with him to help synths escape. They discuss how many synths are ready to leave and propose a plan to free all thirteen at once with the Sole Survivor's help. To escape, Liam will need to bypass SRB electronic security to open some doors, but he isn't able to crack it. Instead, he requests a pre-war admin password from the surface. He recommends asking The Railroad for any leads on where to find one. It should be noted that the player must complete the quest Institutionalized at this point in order to be able to leave the Institute compound.

The password can be found in the laboratory section of the building on the second floor. In order to access it, however, the quest Cambridge Polymer Labs must be completed before escape from the building is possible.

Looking over Liam's plan, Desdemona concludes that if it is successful, it may never be possible for Liam to free another synth ever again due to the Institute going on high-alert following such a security breach. She proposes instead that they should use this opportunity to free every synth in the Institute. To do that would require the synths themselves to rise up and fight for their freedom, instead of operating in the shadows. She instructs the Sole Survivor to give Liam the password he requested, but then to cut him loose and coordinate with Z1-14 instead from then on.

Back in the Institute, the Sole Survivor gives Liam the password, then meets with Z1-14 to discuss Desdemona's proposal. He agrees with the plan and asks for 24 hours to ensure that it is possible. He speaks with the other synths and is surprised at how many volunteers he receives. They will need weapons, however, so he requests that the Sole Survivor aids them by killing a few guards so they can stage a construction accident, allowing a few synths to go into hiding in order to construct weapons. The Sole Survivor may optionally offer to provide additional weapons, which Z1-14 instructs to be placed in a maintenance closet.

The guards are in a maintenance tunnel between Synth Retention and Robotics. After they are dispatched, the worker synths will give their thanks and collapse the tunnel after the Sole Survivor departs. Speaking with Z1-14, he gives his thanks as well and states that they need time to prepare. In the meantime, the Sole Survivor should keep working with Father until they are ready. At this point the quest is put on hold until Powering Up is completed.

After meeting with the Directorate, a runner will arrive in the meeting room with a message from Z1-14 that the Sole Survivor's quarters have flooded and they are needed there immediately. When they arrive, Z1-14 states that he's discovered the Brotherhood of Steel are moving to attack Railroad HQ and The Railroad needs to be warned as soon as possible.

Desdemona gave me an encoded holotape that I can use at any Institute terminal to make contact with the Railroad's guardian angel, Patriot. Perhaps with him (or her) we can devise a way to rescue many synths.

A man named Wilfred Berman worked at Cambridge Polymer Labs. PAM says he would've had the login credentials we need to rescue Patriot's 13 Synths. Now it's just a matter of finding them.

500

Return to Desdemona

Now that I have the login credentials for Code Defender, I need to contact Desdemona. Hopefully she's come up with a plan to help rescue Patriot's 13 Synths.

550

Give password to Liam Binet

Desdemona doesn't want to rescue 13 Synths. She wants to rescue them all. So I need to give Patriot his login credentials. But more importantly I should see if Z1-14 is willing to fight for his freedom.

The Signal Interceptor does not need to be built with The Railroad to be able to start this quest. After finishing The Molecular Level, simply talk with Desdemona and accept her offer to work with the Railroad and this quest begins.

If this quest is failed, the main story line with The Railroad can no longer be completed.

As continuing to work with Father means completing Mass Fusion, the Brotherhood of Steel becomes hostile to the Sole Survivor afterwards, thus making it impossible to continue their main storyline.

The optional "deposit weapons" objective is completed when a certain number of weapons (10 of any kind [verification needed]) have been placed in the marked locker. Placing a stack of weapons appears to only count once, so put them in the crate one at a time.

If all of the guards are not dispatched quickly enough in the tunnels after the Sole Survivor is detected, the Institute may become hostile.

The final meeting with Z1-14 (after completing Powering Up) causes Operation Ticonderoga to fail. Despite the warning that Z1-14 needs to see the player right away, the player can go and finish Operation Ticonderoga and return to Z1-14 after it is complete.

Even if the player completed most of this quest (up until the objective "Keep working with Father") and is still allied with the Railroad, should the player become Banished from the Institute and begin working with the Minutemen to take down the Institute, Z1-14 will be hostile and will fight the player alongside Institute forces during The Nuclear Option (Minutemen). There is no option to warn Z1-14 or ally him with the Minutemen's fight against the Institute. There are no friendly rebel synths. Triggering the evacuation has no effect on Z1-14.

X6-88 hates almost every move the Sole Survivor does in this quest and will become hostile if they attack the guards, failing Mass Fusion and thus the entire task.

Completion of quest will allow legendary Railway rifles to be found randomly as loot on legendary enemies.

This console command Set LegendaryRailwayRifle to 0 will enable them to be looted if you don't wish to complete this quest.

pcps4xboxone Sometimes the 'Continue Working With Father' objective never ends, even past Mass Fusion and Powering Up. Can use the console command setstage 00b2d48 910 to move past this glitch. Talking to Liam Binet could also trigger a runner to come get you on Z1-14's behalf.[verified]

pcps4xboxone Sometimes the encrypted message holotape will not be added to your inventory. A console fix for this is: player.additem 0020b00e 1 Possibly because player teleports before quest item is given to player and player continues quest with network scanner holotape which for some reason contains quest related data to be uploaded for undercover agent.[verified]

xboxone Should Tinker Tom get downed in combat with other NPCs prior to the player securing the vertibird, Tom may remain incapacitated by the entrance door to each new area the player spawns into. The player will not be able to revive him with a stimpak, and as such he will not be able to fly the vertibird, effectively bringing the quest to a complete halt.[verification overdue]

pcxboxone When prompted to kill the tunnel guards, only 4 of the 5 guards spawn. This results in the 5th guard marker spawning beneath the floor.[verification overdue]

pcps4xboxone It is possible that Desdemona will not initiate dialogue when trying to warn her about the brotherhood.[verified]

PC beta patch 1.3 resolves this issue in at least some cases. [verified]

This may be caused by Glory being dead. To fix go to Railroad HQ and use recycleactor 000508EE and 000508EE.moveto player in the console. You can also fix by prid 00508EE followed by resurrect and finally moveto player. This must be done before Z1-14 informs the Sole Survivor of the impending Brotherhood attack. [verified]

It is possible that during and after Glory assists the player during the quest Memory Interrupted she can either become stuck in the area or die, resulting in a halt to progress for Underground Undercover. This is because Glory is involved in a dialogue with the player during the Brotherhood of Steel warning event. To avoid this, the player should follow Glory out of the Malden Center Station as she can become stuck on metro gates or other objects.[verification overdue]

If Deacon is dead, this can also cause the same issue. [verification overdue]

The quest can be force completed by using either the command setstage rr201 1100 or completequest rr201 at the Railroad HQ. However, this will not initiate the next quest, Precipice of War. This method is only effective if a way to force start the next quest is available.[verification overdue]

This may be caused by Brotherhood important NPCs being dead. To fix use recycleactor in the console for every dead body left in the Prydwen, Boston Airport, and Cambridge Police Station. It is uncertain though who exactly causes this. This must be done before Z1-14 informs the Sole Survivor of the impending Brotherhood attack.[verified]

pcxboxone This bug can also occur if the player character has not killed any members of the Brotherhood of Steel in the Prydwen, Boston Airport, or the Cambridge Police Station, or if Glory is still alive.[verification overdue]

pc If "Warn Desdemona" is active and the Brotherhood didn't become hostile during Mass Fusion, either by activating the fast travel point manually and thus skipping the confrontation or by using the console to bypass that stage of the quest, the NPCs on the Prydwen will talk to the Sole Survivor as if the assault on the Railroad had already taken place and failed. [verification overdue]